The best theory we have for the evolution of aging says that bearing children should shorten your life span. The best theory is wrong.

Current Evolutionary Theory

Here’s the surprise from genetic research in the 1990s that changed the way evolutionary scientists think about aging: Aging takes place under control of an intricate regulatory system, ultimately governed by genes. What is more, some of these genes have been conserved over a huge range of life forms, dating back to the dawn of multi-cellular life. No one had anticipated this, but once it was established, there could be no more talk of aging as a passive process, the body “wearing out” like an old shoe or a rusty car.